The “Batman: Confidential” series has not been great. The first story arc of Batman vs Lex Luthor was okay. The new Joker origin storyline by Michael Green started off good, but by the end it became kind of blah for me. I read the advance solicitations of the current storyline “Do You Understand These Rights?” a few months ago and thought it sounded interesting. So far, I’m really enjoying it.

The story began in last month’s issue with Batman bringing in the Joker for booking at the Gotham City Police Department for the first time ever. The first issue ended with the Joker stealing the home phone number of one of the detectives who were booking him. He used his one phone call to call the detective’s wife and pretend to be a doctor with the news that she was dying of a disease and that it would be slow and painful death; he said it would be best if she ended her life. One of the cruelest things the Joker has ever done in comics. This issue is part two and is even better than the previous one. With an ending you won’t believe. It involves the Joker and a peanut.

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I watched the premiere episode of the newest Batman television series with my four-year old son, James - he loved it. However, he also likes Caillou and The Backyardigans. If you are a parent with a young child, you know what I’m talking about.

The latest Batman cartoon takes its name and format from the classic original run of the “Brave and the Bold” comic series that featured Batman teaming up with a different super-hero from the DC Universe each month. The premiere episode was entertaining. It’s a decent story that saw Batman teaming up with Jamie Reyes the Blue Beetle. It’s cool that DC and its parent company, Warner Brothers, are sticking with Jamie and introducing him to an audience outside of the comic book world. I wasn’t crazy about the death of the Ted Kord Blue Beetle, especially with the new Blue Beetle’s outfit. I hated the outfit when I first saw it, but it’s grown on me. I also like the character of Jaime himself in the various appearances he’s made in comics over the past two years. That said, what about tonight’s episode?

I wasn’t planning on getting “Batman: Cacophony” (not crazy about the title). As regular comic readers, we know that the writer of this series Kevin Smith as of late has not been good at meeting deadlines. His last work over at Marvel was a six-issue mini-series called “Spider-man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do”. A mini-series which began in 2002 and did not finish until sometime in 2006. Four years for six issues. Then there is “Daredevil: The Target”. Issue one was released and the series was never finished. So why should I even bother investing money and time to this man? If I wasn’t writing for this blog, and if I didn’t get 20% off of new books, I wouldn’t have bothered. I can’t say, “it was worth every penny, thank God I bought this book.” But I will say, Kevin Smith does a very good job of writing a Batman story.

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I’ve enjoyed Paul Dini‘s run on “Detective Comics” so far. I’ve also enjoyed this story arc of his: Heart of Hush which ends with this issue #850. Hush has returned to exact revenge on Bruce Wayne. Thomas Elliot aka Hush hates Bruce Wayne because his abusive mother thought more highly of Bruce than her own son Tommy. Hush decides to attack Bruce by attacking the woman he loves most in the world: Catwoman. He attacks at Bruce’s heart figuratively and attacks Catwoman literally by taking out her heart.

This was a good issue. A good ending to this story. Batman retrieves Catwoman’s heart and has it put back in her body thanks to the surgical skills of Dr. Mid-nite and Mister Terrific of the Justice Society. The issue had a lot of action, good drama, and some fine moments that will give fan boys something to squeal about like Alfred kicking Hush’s butt.

Back in the 1950s, also known as my misspent youth, the editors at DC Comics actually tried to answer all the “real life” questions that got tossed at their superheroes, particularly, Superman. Ignoring the fact that this isn’t real life in the first place, there were a million questions. As no one seemed to worry about continuity back then, a story was written that explained various things such as the following questions.

How did Superman cut his hair? Afterall, it was invulnerable, just like the rest of him. The answer is he used his heat vision reflected off a mirror. How he shaved they never got into.

Where did the supersuit come from? It had to be invulnerable because the bullets everyone always futilely shot at Supes bounced off it. If it wasn’t invulnerable, there would have been holes in the suit after the shot bounced off Superman. The answer was that Ma Kent sewed it from the blanket he was wrapped in when the ship that brought Superman to earth crashed. That, of course, begs the question of what kind of super needle she happened to have in her sewing kit. That’s neither her nor there at this point though.

And the glasses? I mean, was that all it took for anyone to not notice the resemblance between Clark and Superman? The answer is that one of Supes’ little know powers is super hypnotism and he used the glasses to focus it so that no one in the world would notice how much they looked alike. Believe me, I wish I was making this explanation up, but I am not. My colleague, David Torres, wonders what happens if Clark Kent loses the glasses.

Anyway, does anyone remember any more of these? Want to make up your own scenarios and answer them or have other readers answer them, leave your comments below!

In one of the latest issues of “Action Comics,” Clark Kent is asked whether he would consider laser surgery so he can get rid of his glasses. This got me thinking. In order for Clark Kent to hide his secret identity as Superman, he wears a pair of glasses. Over the past decade more and more people have been getting laser eye surgery to eliminate the need for eyeglasses. If things continue to go on like this and technology continues to improve, will no one in the world have to wear glasses? If so, what does it mean for Clark Kent? Does DC Comics have to find another way for Clark Kent to hide his identity? The removing of the glasses and the ripping open of the dress shirt to reveal the “S” on his costume is an iconic image for Superman. Will this hurt the character if he no longer wears glasses? Sounds silly? Maybe. Something to think about kids… feel free to leave your comments!

As a comic shop owner, I am in weekly contact with DC. Everytime I ask them for some good gossip I never get any. Advance word of All-Star Batman 10 would have been real nice. So even though the season is not even half over, we certainly can speculate.